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So, you found a stray kitten … but the next step isn’t simply taking him home with you. What do you feed a stray kitten? Where should you take stray kittens if you can’t care for them yourself? And how do you determine if the kitties are in fact strays in the first place?

So … you’ve found a stray kitten or kittens? Here’s what to do next. Photography by Sun_apple/Thinkstock.

Investigate — does the stray kitten have a mother?

Helping orphaned kittens will first require some detective work. One of the biggest mistakes people make when finding stray kittens is taking them away from their mother. Neonatal kittens are still nursing and need to be fed frequently, so they should be kept with their mother, if possible.

Here’s how to assess the situation:

Are the kittens sleeping comfortably? The mother is probably coming back.

When you recheck on them, are any of them missing? The mother is moving them.

If they’re often found sleeping, then the mother is caring for them.

To be absolutely sure, sprinkle some flour around where the kittens are located and look for paw prints upon your return. If the mother is in the picture, let them be. In approximately eight weeks, go back and TNR (trap/neuter/return) the whole family.

What to do if the stray kitten does not have a mother

If you have determined the stray kitten (or kittens!) does not have a mother, his greatest chance for survival begins with you. The first thing you’ll need to do is capture the stray kitten. For some kittens, this is as easy as reaching out and scooping them up. For others, you may need to contact a local animal society or shelter to obtain the humane traps often used in TNR. Simply place the trap out with some food inside, and wait nearby. The kitten should wander in and trigger the trap to close its door. Kittens do not get hurt in the process!

Next, get the stray kitten to a veterinarian for a checkup ASAP. If the vet’s office is closed, you’ll have to start his care right away. Even if you can’t foster a stray kitten long term, you’ll be a lifeline during this first phase of rescue.

If you cannot foster the stray kitten for any amount of time, find a no-kill animal shelter. The No Kill Network has a list of organizations by state, and Adopt-A-Pet lists cat rescues.

Containing and monitoring the formerly stray kitten is key to his health and well-being. A dog crate is perfect. To keep him toasty, place a covered heating pad in his crate and keep the room temperature at 75 degrees. The heating pad should cover only half the crate so he can get away from it. Watch for panting — you don’t want him to get overheated either. A cold or limp kitten indicates a medical emergency.

Only bottle-feed the kitten with his belly touching the table (never while on his back). Experts recommend letting the kitten eat the warmed-up formula until he’s full. It usually takes less than 15 minutes.

Kittens will need help eliminating urine and feces until they are approximately a month old. After each feeding, use a warm, damp washcloth to gently rub his anus until he goes. You can introduce a litter box filled with non-clumping litter at 3 weeks old.

20 comments on “You Found a Stray Kitten — Here’s What to Do”

There is a stray kitten in our backyard with the mother and still being weaned, but the kitten has a damaged leg and I’d like to take it to the vet. However, my concern is that once we do that the mother may not accept the baby after treatment. Would I be correct in thinking that?

On a Saturday morning My husband found a kitten on the road, he was walking blind because his eyes were full of discharge, his nose was running, he was very cold to the touch. My husband grabbed him off the road as a truck headed toward him and snuggled him in his coat. He asked the person working on the yard if they had a cat, he said no, but did seen a feral cat in the woods.
My husband brought this sick little kitten home and I put him in the bathroom and ran the shower for steam to help his nose and eyes.
The Vet was closed til Monday so I did my best over the weekend bottle feeding and using steam to help him breathe.
The Vet said he has a Feline upper respiratory infection and probably won’t make it. For several weeks I babied the baby. Medicine 3x a day, steam to clear his breathing path and bottle feeding.
Today he is a happy very healthy big 1 year old cat named Lewis.

Nice article. I have a question though … Suppose I find a few stray kittens (Let’s say 5) and I am pretty sure that they were abandoned by their mother. I can only bring 1 or 2 with me home… Should I separate them ?

Thanks for reaching out. We suggest scooping up all the kittens if you’re sure that their mother isn’t coming back for them. Please bring the kittens to a local, no-kill rescue if you can’t keep them. This piece might help as well: https://www.catster.com/kittens/found-an-abandoned-kitten

I have found a 10 month to 12 month kitten alone and in good shape, I don’t know what I am supposed to do. People in my house are allergic to cats also, should I be afraid of the kitten carrying a disease that can spread to a human? What can I do?

Please remember to check out the abandoned Kitten for fleas. The fleas need to be removed for Kitten survival. Some kitten’s are completely covered in fleas slowily stripping the kitten of life. You’ll need a warm room, warm water, Dawn dish soap, several absorbent cotton towels, tweezers and lots and lots of patience. Becareful not to get water in the kitten’s nose, mouth or ears, watch for fleas hiding inside the ears. It’s very important to keep the Kitten warm and not let it get chilled.

My rescue group has seen that the kitten must weigh at least 4 pounds to properly survive anesthesia . That is typically 4-6 months of age. You should keep the males sepoarate from the females as some males show interest in the females at 5 months.

The article is concerning feral kittens, not stray kittens. Strays are ones who had lived in a home with someone, but had gotten lost or abandoned. A kitten that was born in someones back yard is NOT a “stray.”

You’re wrong. Many, many puppies and kittens are spayed and neutered at 8 weeks and remain healthy. It’s a fact that kittens can breed as young as 4 months old. When they don’t go through a heat cycle, they have far fewer problems down the road, such as cancer, pyometria (females), or spraying (males), as well as escaping when their hormones are acting up and not only adding to the cat and dog overpopulation problem, but being hit by cars, attacked by wildlife, and becoming victims of really sick people. Please give sources of information for your views–mine can be found on this site–as well as proof before you post something as off-the-wall as this.

I totally agree with you, and it is due to the pattern of negligence on the part of we humans that shelter/rescue organizations are spaying/neutering at such a young age. All four of mine were old kittens when I had them spayed/neutered. I have two females and two males.

In your last comments, you mentioned that kittens are ready to be spayed & neutered at 8 weeks old. I am sorry but I strongly disagree with that new popular idea. I know that Humane Societies practice this and as I said, I do NOT agree. And I am not alone in my belief that this is way too young and health challenges follow these little babies because it is too “convenient” than to wait until they are about 6 months old, as it was for a long time.
It became a common practice when the cat & dog population grew to the point of not knowing how to cope with the exploding growth and also there were more rescue organizations that were overwhelmed. I am sure that many indiscriminate people who adopted kittens and puppies never followed thru with the certificate to be brought in when the baby was 6 months and was to be spayed or neutered. But now this practice has replaced the healthy one and now we have a whole new generation of pets with health issues caused by their hormones being tampered with when they were babies. I guarantee that if human babies were given these operations, we would have health challenges that your mind cannot comprehend!